Mitchell Ridge

Credits and Sources

Robert A. (Bob) Ricklis and Steve Black are the authors of this exhibit. Black put together the exhibit. Web development was done by Kathy Chung of the Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services, the University of Texas at Austin.

The Mitchell Ridge was underwritten by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Texas Preservation Trust Fund (Texas Historical Commission), and the Mitchell Family Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Department of Anthropology, Texas State University and the College of Liberal Arts, the University of Texas at Austin.

Artist Frank A. Weir painted the Mitchell Ridge grave scene, a work commissioned by Meredith L. Dreiss. Dreiss also analyzed the shell artifacts from Mitchell Ridge. The exhibit photographs and graphics come from several sources including the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory Archives, Robert Ricklis, and Lou Fullen. Fullen also provided background materials and advice.

Bob Ricklis received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and lives in Corpus Christi. For the last two decades he has carried out many research projects along the Texas coast. His dissertation research resulted in the UT Press book The Karankawa Indians of Texas: An Ecological Study of Cultural Tradition and Change. He has directed major excavations at the Mitchell Ridge and Buckeye Knoll sites as well as many smaller-scale testing and survey projects. His ecological approach has led to a sophisticated understanding of the inseparable relationships between development of estuary and bay systems and the human exploitation and settlement of the Texas coast.

Print Sources:

All sources with the Adobe Acrobat symbol——can be downloaded as PDF files.

Anderson, John B.
2007 The Formation and Future of the Upper Texas Coast: A Geologist Answers Questions about Sand, Storms, and Living by the Sea. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.

Aten, Lawrence E.
1976 "Descriptions of Boys School and Other Galveston Bay Area Mortuary Data" and "Analysis of Galveston Area Mortuary Practices. In: Excavations at the Harris County Boys School Cemetery. by Aten, Charles K. Chandler, Al B. Wesolowsky, and Robert M. Malina, Special Publication 3, Texas Archeological Society, San Antonio.

Bell, Ann L. (translator) and Robert S. Weddle (annotator)
1987 Voyage to the Mississippi Through the Gulf of Mexico. In: La Salle, the Mississippi, and the Gulf: Three Primary Documents, Robert S. Weddle, editor, Texas A&M University Press.

Fullen, William L.
1990 Affidavit, Civil Action No. G-78-1888. United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division. [Legal document relating a history of the archeological investigations at Mitchell Ridge and the facts and opinions of the author regarding the cultural significance of the site.]

Ricklis, Robert A.
1990 A Historical Cultural Ecology of the Karankawan Indians of the Central Texas Coast: A Case Study in the Roots of Adaptive Change. Ph.D. dissertation, The Department of Geography, The University of Texas at Austin.